The Chronicles Of Rhaxtyx

*4 days ago*

Rhaxtyx opened his eyes in one of the rooms in the Stampede Inn. This was the inn that Angeline was taken from him yesterday. He would not stay here if it weren't free and he didn't have any money. He did not feel better after a night's rest. It was natural that he still felt rage because his first and only friend was taken from him.

He sat up on the bed and took a look at Badgey. It was still sleeping peacefully like nothing happened. With a harrumph, he pulled the curtain and looked out the window. The sun started to rise from east and people started to flood the streets. He heard a shuffling sound behind him and as he turned to look, Badgey nudged him with its nose.

"What? What do you want this early in the morning?"

It was as if Badgey did not hear him. It nudged a bit more then went towards the door. Just as it was about to try and open the door, Rhaxtyx hit it and spoke with a serious tone.

*Smack*

"Are you out of your mind? What am I thinking, of course you are not. How can you be out of your mind when you hardly have one!? Are you trying to get yourself killed!? Without your disguise on people would freak out whenever they see you!"

*whimper*

"And yet you still look calm. That looks in your eyes! You look like you understand humans but you still don't do you? You have that spark of intelligence but you are still an idiot! Do you even feel sad? She adored you so much y'know. Humph. What am I thinking? Of course you don't. You can't!"

He walked around the room while talking. His arms were flailing about as he talked, like they were making a point. When he looked at Badgey again, it curled on the floor and did not look at Rhaxtyx again. With a sigh, Rhaxtyx touched him and cast Disguise on him.

"Let's go. We got stuff to do."

As he walked out the door Badgey climbed on his left shoulder. With a disappointed headshake he climbed down the stairs to the dining area. The innkeeper was an energetic old man. Even though there were waiters and waitresses around, he was seen among the tables taking orders and walking towards the kitchen and relaying it.

When the innkeeper saw Rhaxtyx, he went behind the bar and welcomed him with a smile.

"Morning laddie. Slept well? I kno' that ma beds ah not comfy but they at least let ya sleep."

"Shut up. Don't act friendly with me old man."

"Wot I dun to ye?"

"You were in on that occasion yesterday right? You weren't even there!"

"Me didn' know laddie! They seemed strong so I fled! They didn' want me in anywae!"

"Just give me some breakfast."

"Want somethin else? Or anythin speshal in it?"

"Just give me plain breakfast old man and leave me alone!"

"Fine fine. One breakfast comin righup!"

Rhaxtyx gave a look to his surroundings while his breakfast was being prepared. There were not a lot of people in the inn, mostly guests that stayed the night. There were some other people as well however. And one of them was the sergeant that showed them their way yesterday. He looked at Rhaxtyx with a smile and when they made eye contact he picked his glass up and walked towards him. Rhaxtyx turned away but sergeant was there looking at him and smiling while he sat down.

"Good morning mister Rex. I hope you had a –"

"Cut the crap! What do you want? To laugh at my face? If so, piss off. I'm not in the mood for bullsh*t."

"Whoa! Somebody got up from the wrong side of the bed. I do not have that kind of intention. On the contrary, I'm here to convey my feelings. What happened yesterday was out of both of our hands. There were bigger powers involved. They wanted that girl and they would stop at nothing."

"And you just gave up on your allegiance to your king?"

"No. On the contrary, with my service to that group of people, Kingdom of Herron could get a potential bonus from it."

"'Ere's yer breakfast laddie. Oh sarge! Morning. Ye want something? Did ya eat?"

"I had my breakfast, thank you. But I could do with another coffee."

"One coffee comin righup!"

Rhaxtyx glared at the innkeeper while he walked happily. He felt irritated by his way of talking, his accent. While he glared like that, sergeant continued speaking.

"Those people were people of the family this kingdom serves. So I'm sure there will be some kind of rewards for my service."

"So you wanted to boast. Humph. Get going if you are done! I don't have time for your-"

"Not at all. What I'm after is a reassurance. You have nothing to worry about. Princess left to her family so she cannot be any safer. So live freely."

"Get. Going."

"Okay. I will leave you alone now. But know this: If you try to go after her, they'll know. And they will stop you. You are like an insect to them, all of us are. So it is not difficult for them to kill you. If you ever need anything, just speak. Your expenses will be paid as long as you stay."

Rhaxtyx waved his hand towards the sergeant and began eating his breakfast. Sergeant stood up and turned to leave the inn. Innkeeper came to see Rhaxtyx alone. While mumbling, he began drinking the coffee himself.

After eating his breakfast, Rhaxtyx stood up and just left the inn. He took a walk in the city, noting the places of interest. Like the library or the alchemist. He had a ton of raw materials and he had no use for them. That's why he walked from store to store and inquired about the prices of his wares. He walked until it was noon. Even though he didn't feel hunger, he liked to do things that mortals liked and did. So he went in the Stampede Inn again and ordered a meal. While he ate, a young man caught his eye. He was exiting from one of the back rooms with a waitress. He seemed to be injured and so the waitress was helping him walk. The old innkeeper soon came out of the same room and told some things to the waitress while giving her a room key. After that he talked to one of the patrons and that patron left the inn after giving a nod.

After noticing Rhaxtyx watching the whole thing, the innkeeper approached his table.

"Ye want anythin laddie?"

"What was that about?"

"Poor soul came 'ere injured. A young adventurer he is. Gave 'im to Sammy to care."

"You called a healer or something? That man left after you two talked."

"Aye. I kno 'im from wae back. He works at the church. So he kno'es a healer."

"Cool. I don't want anything so leave."

"Don' be so cold lad. I'm no foe."

"Whatever."

Like that, he spent his day. After getting a price for everything he had from his hunt with Angeline, he sold them one by one. With that money he wanted to hire a magician to fire some spells at him. But that didn't go as he planned.

"What are you, crazy?!"

"Did I stutter?"

"You must have a death wish or something!"

"I'll be fine so fire some spells at me man!"

"I don't want to anything to do about this! You don't seem sane!"

"Come on! What can you lose?"

"At best? My freedom and my research! Get lost!"

After being rejected like that, he returned to the inn and went closed door meditation for a couple of days. He only went out for eating and bathing.

He thought about expanding his magic comprehension to be back at his own standard. For this, his best choice was to study the Shadow Arts he found the other day. He focused on it every day and tried studying it. In the best case he would feel an uncomfortable and his focus would break. At worst case, he would suffer a backlash and be launched back. At his third day, he had another fail and was sent flying to the wall. He hit the wall with great force so there was a lot of sound.

*Slam!*

"SH*T! Not again!"

"ENOufh. I mm goin tu…" (Enough. I am going to…) (Neighbor)

"Yes. Enough indeed. You ought to go to bed this instant."

"Looks like I caused another trouble for my neighbor. But there's nothing to be done. I have to get that evolution done. This kind of reaction from it is normal, I think."

Rhaxtyx got up and wiped the dust on himself. He began thinking once more.

'It really is hard. Does it reject me or something? Does this thing have a will of its own? No, that's not possible on this level, it is far too weak for that. Then what is it? Maybe just focusing on it is not enough? Let's try making my mana go into it now.'

He once more sat down on the ground and began meditating. He focused on moving his mana to the Shadow Arts in his consciousness. His efforts were not fruitless this time as it merged with the art relatively easily. He kept doing it and felt that he could understand and decipher it a little. If this went on like this he would comprehend this art and the law of this magic school and add it to his arsenal of magic.

'With this I can become stronger!'

He continued like this for a long time, until his understanding allowed him to manipulate his own shadow a tiny bit. At that point he opened his eyes and saw that the sun just rose from the eastern sky.

'It took that long huh? There's nothing more to learn from this before more practice it seems. It is morning already so let's give it up for now, night would be a better time to study this.'

He had nothing better to do right now and he wanted to go out and find something to do. He thought some fresh air would help him clear his mind and help thinking. After all, he was up all night meditating and forcing his mind to learn something new. Even though it was exciting, he wanted to go out as well.

City was still bustling when he left the inn. The people were eager to go out despite it being so early. He always wondered how people can be so eager to wake up this early and do work while most of them just wanted to laze around all day. But when he thought about doing various experiments and his feelings when he did those, he decided to not think about it and kept on walking.

He walked all day, can't deciding what to do. The sun was slowly making its way towards the western skies. It was about five or six pm. There were various stalls that sold foodstuffs and juices all over the marketplace. Rhaxtyx liked to watch these kinds of places the most. He could observe mortals in their natural states. He would usually sit around and watch but he wasn't in the mood of doing that so he kept on walking.

While he passed an alleyway, he heard something heavy fall to the ground. He looked in the alley and saw a shadow moving about. Losing to his curiosity he entered the alley. He walked until finally realizing that it was a dead end and there was the body of a young man lying on the ground face down without moving. He walked while scratching his head he looked around. There was no one he could see. So he kneeled to the body and flipped it. His face was shocked and there was a hole on his torso, where his heart would be.

"Looking at the wound, the blade penetrated from behind. Poor fella. He kind of looks familiar though."

When he saw the face of this young man, he realized that it was the same person that came to the inn injured. Rhaxtyx recalled that this person was his next door neighbor. With a sigh he began searching through his pockets, looking for information about this person. Soon after, he found a name plate.

"Hmm. So your name is Rax? That's kind of ironic, don't you think so too, little bastard?"

After Rhaxtyx finished his sentence, Badgey came out of his clothes and jumped down next to the corpse. Sniffed a bit and walked around as if it was uninterested.

"Hmm. Name is almost the same. Looks are not that bad. And he is an adventurer, according to his name plate. I think I can use this. But then there's the body. Oi little bastard. You reckon you can eat-"

*Burp*

When he turned around to talk to Badgey he saw it lying on his back with an inflated belly. Signs of eating too much. After hearing Rhaxtyx, it gave a small burp and his head fell down as if it fell asleep. There was no corpse to speak about, there were only some small pieces of flesh.

"You work fast, I'll give you that. But you are a bit sloppy. There are still some pieces lying around y'know."

Rhaxtyx kneeled down to where the corpse was and began scratching his head.

"Well that takes care of the corpse. Now only the Disguise remains. Let's be another person then!"

After a minute of concentrating on the details his face and skin tone changed. He looked at his hands and stood up. His body was a bit taller and thinner.

"Man. He looks so weak! Oh well. He died. No meaning in crying over spilled milk."

After he talked he raised his head and gave a small chuckle. After that he looked towards one of the window shades and talked.

"Now that that's taken care of, what do you say?"

He expected a reply but was a bit disappointed when all he got was just a silent gaze.

"Oh come on… You know it too, being an assassin, you should never leave any witnesses. So why are you still watching me huh? A fair warning though, I'm not that weak."

While he spoke a cloaked figure carrying a short sword landed in front of him. Only their eyes were visible and they were open wide with shock.